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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Keith" data-source="post: 1096948" data-attributes="member: 10752">There are some nice sites on painting miniatures, that is for sure.  I’ll throw in my own basic advice here, though.  First of all, whether you buy metal or plastic (and I don’t think that makes a huge difference; buy the figures you like regardless of this factor, I would say), clean them and remove flashing with a sharp craft knife (so you will need one of those), and if you get a metal one file the bottom of it flat (so, a cheap file for that).Then, spray prime in a well ventilated area.  Painting without priming is, at best, very difficult, and also pretty pointless.  Priming only takes a few minutes and makes all the difference.  There are a variety of colors available, but I agree that in most cases black is far better.  Particularly armored figures; spray black, dry-brush with metal…pretty close to finished.  Brush on primer tends to obscure more detail.For beginners, I would recommend doing skin areas with a dark tone dry-brushed with a light tone, and not try to paint facial features (depending on what scale you are using).  My other advice is make liberal use of dry-brushing: paint an area with one shade, then dry-brush over it to pick out highlights.  This doesn’t require much skill, and can really make a nice difference in appearance (quickly, too).  To dry-brush, put some paint on the brush, and then run the brush back and forth on a paper towel or the like until there is seemingly little or no paint wet on the brush.  Then draw the brush lightly over the area you want to highlight.  This process is hard on brushes, so use the same one for it, and buy a cheaper one for this purpose to start with.  Keep your other brushes in better shape at the tip.  Another nice and easy technique is washing some areas with diluted artists’ ink.My only other advice is to get some flocking and take the bother of gluing some on the base of each figure.  Again, it is not skilled work, and can make things look much nicer than say just a flat painted base.My last comment is that you can get decent at painting pretty quickly, but at the same time, you may always be stunned by what more experienced people can do (I know I am).  Use bright light and maybe magnifying glasses to help out.  Be patient, but finish things at your own pace and be happy with what you can do.Have fun!</blockquote>

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